Design of exergames with the collaborative participation of older adults

Healthy older adults experience physical and sensory performance decrease, reducing their interest in exercising and leading to a sedentary lifestyle. This increases natural decay, diseases, isolation and risk of falls and eventually death. Active-play video gaming, also referred as exergaming, might motivate positive changes in health behavior. However, such games need to take into account the physical characteristics of players and can also be used to foster their social ties. In this paper, we present a long-term intervention, using Action Research, aimed at developing insights for the design of full-body motion-control exergames for older adults experiencing age-related changes addressing problems raised by their motion capacity. The results of our study establish which physical characteristics need to be monitored to adapt gameplay, and other elements of social gameplay and spectator-centered design. Based on our study we present guidelines for the design of full-body interaction in exergames for older adults.